I participated in my third Chocolate & Art show this past weekend. It had a pretty good turnout both nights. A LOT of people asked me about my light-up pieces and how they were made. I wish I had my 3Doodler discount cards on me, because once I mentioned I used a 3D pen, their minds were blown. I met some pretty cool people at the show, too.

On the schedule, earlier this year, this was supposed to be my first feature [ever] at an art gallery. But, unexpectedly, I was invited to also be featured in the Line Art Show that took place a few months ago. At any rate, this August feature is still a pretty big deal because now my featured wall space is in the FRONT of the gallery! And not only that, I’m sharing this show with Plastic Jesus (one of my favorite street artists)!

The show runs from August 5 – September 5. Fingers crossed for some sales!

I had gone to the last 2 comic cons and always scoped out the Art Show that was located upstairs at the Sails Pavilion at the Convention Center, which last year was right next to check-in/registration (where you get your free bags, lanyards, and program booklets). A prime location.

This year I decided to register for the Art Show to see how my stuff would do at a show as big as San Diego Comic Con. Once it was confirmed that I was in the show, we got the news that the location of the art show was moving….to two hotels away from the Convention Center. This presented all kinds of unknowns! As far as attendance, foot traffic, signage, word of mouth, etc! The only thing that might have been good was that because it was in a hotel, it would now be open to the public. The Art Show would also be right next to the hall where you redeem any tickets or vouchers Hall H and/or panel attendees would receive and claim whatever free swag the panels were offering. The problem with that, though, is that not everyone (including my step brother who receive a ticket) knew what to do with those tickets.

With that said, registered bidders for the Art Show was down 40%. I should be considered lucky, and I’m definitely grateful, to have sold a few pieces! Thank you to those that made time to find the Art Show, and to those who made purchases! You have no idea how much you’ve improved people’s day(s) considering the obstacles we faced this year with the new location!

I participated in my 4th Pancakes & Booze art show this past weekend, and it was great! I debuted pieces that were both new to shows (the cats in boxes) and to the Pancakes show (the Stormtrooper and Bees, which everyone seems to love). I brought some bee “specimens” that people also enjoyed.

The biggest kicks I got out of the show were my installation diagram that was dismissed (but still worked out!) and my pin bucket. The Stromtrooper was supposed to stand on top of the black shelf I brought, but whoever installed the shelf installed it upside down, leaving not enough room for the Stormtrooper’s feet. So Ryan and I shared the shelf with other stuff. So the Stormtrooper stood on the floor, which was still fine. It was big and bright enough for people to take notice. Then the pin bucket…I started this idea during the last show where people to take a free unicorn pin if they follow me on Instagram. I noticed that not everyone was READING the sign in the bucket. They would just take a pin and not follow! So this time I typed out another sign with funny small print, hoping that people would read the whole thing and be more obedient/amused. I still had about 5 thieves out of maybe 20 honest new followers. So those thieves will be getting impaled by a unicorn horn!

I had submitted a few of my Inktober drawings to The Hive Gallery to possibly be a part of their upcoming Line Art show. Little did I expect to instead be invited to have a small feature that would showcase however many drawings I wanted to display on a 4’x5′ wall space! This would also mark my 1st feature in a gallery!

They opening was pretty cool, and after the month-long duration of the show I was able to sell 1 of the 19 drawings I brought, so I consider it a small success!

The first Curio Con, as a vendor, was…..a learning experience. Attendance was poor due to many factors (mostly the lack of advertising both online and on-site, and possibly the fact it was on Mother’s Day weekend), so a lot of the vendors had to make the best of it, whether it be interacting with each other or bringing projects with them to work on. Might as well be productive if nothing else is going on, right? I happened to be able to do both. I met a new “supplier” for blank vinyl figures and parts, and I also worked on more 3Doodler pieces.

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I’m not sure I’ll be having a space as the next Curio Con (if there is a next Curio Con), or if I’ll ever be vending at the first of any other kind of convention after this experience. Without proven success, it’s just and expensive gamble.

The Force was strong on the night of May 4th. I had pieces in 3 different Star Wars related events and two sold! The rainbow stormtrooper was shown at the Poppy & Prime Star Wars x Stranger Things fan tribute show and the Princess Leia light display sold at Thumbprint Gallery’s “May the 4th Be With You” pop-up show! Thanks to those who bought these pieces. You totally made my night!

My setup at the Poppy & Prime show.

You can catch my Princess Leia light at the very end of this clip from the Thumbprint Gallery Show.

I was invited to make a piece for The Hive Gallery’s 12th Anniversary show, which was going to be bee themed. I was supposed to come up with my own avatar (a self portrait but in bee form in “hiveland”). Portraits [of people] aren’t things I do, but I did have a great idea for a 3D printed and 3D drawing shadow box light display. I ran the concept by Nathan, the curator, and he liked it! So I got started on it.

I’m new to 3D printing and definitely a beginner with 3D modeling. But after reviewing a few simple Blender tutorials online, I felt confident enough that I could make an extruded hexagon as my honeycombs. About 2 hours later, I figured it out and I was ready to send it to print, using clear plastic on my Micro3D printer.

Take a look at the progress of making this display.

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There are:

96 3D printed honeycombs that took 1hr/pc to print (so 96 hrs of printing, not including a few of the scrapped pieces)